Underground by Will Hunt

Will Hunt has been fascinated with underground places since his childhood discovery of an abandoned tunnel in his hometown. Perhaps abandoned isn’t quite right; Hunt found signs of occasional human occupation in the old tunnels. He pursued his interest in underground places and the way people used and experienced them around the world. He describes these experiences, and what these hidden chambers mean, in Underground.

Hunt’s explorations took him into both manmade spaces and natural caves. He retells adventures from the Paris catacombs and a trip across the city that was almost entirely underground. He entered mines and saw shrines miners created for the spirits (or monsters) that live in them, beings that are sometimes generous and sometimes dangerous. Perhaps these are relatives to the spirits, strange creatures and gods reputed to live in natural caves.

Caves and tunnels are important to varying degrees to almost all religions. Shamans, priests and philosophers have long traveled under the earth to seek insight or communication with other worlds. Hunt ties this to the hallucinations and distorted sense of time humans experience when they are deprived of sensory stimulation. He does not denigrate these experiences, but sees them as something universally human. The altered state of consciousness one might enter in the utter darkness of a cave is simply another way the mind works, and possibly the root of all religion.

People did not always understand what was underground, and we are still making discoveries. Even two centuries ago, the world under our feet was a mystery. As a fan of Missouriana, I was attracted to Hunts telling of the life John Cleves Symmes. A St. Louis-based trader and former Army officer, Symmes was a proponent of a hollow earth theory. We were not living in the inner world, but he imagined there were worlds within ours existing on a series of concentric spheres. From 1818 until his death in 1829, he traveled the country lecturing on this theory and raising money to mount an expedition. He never made that trip to inner worlds, but he was an inspiration to the authors of hollow earth stories such as Edgar Allen Poe, H. G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Frank L. Baum.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

A Professor, a President, and a Meteor by Cathryn J. Prince

The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown by Paul Malmont

The Big Roads by Earl Swift

The Brooklyn Bridge by Judith St. George

The Explorer King by Robert Wilson

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

London Under by Peter Ackroyd

Rising Tide by James M. Barry

Road to the Sea by Florence Dorsey

Second Chronicles

The Water Room by Christopher Fowler

Hunt, Will. Underground: A Human History of the World Beneath Our Feet. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2018.

Life's Matrix by Philip Ball

Water is a chemical essential to human life and culture, and it is possibly the oddest common substance. Physicist and science writer Philip Ball describes the nature of water, both scientific and cultural, in Life’s Matrix (originally published in the United Kingdom as H2O: A Biography of Water).

Ball begins at the very beginning—the big bang. Hydrogen, the simplest atom and most abundant element in the universe, appeared early in the universe. Oxygen is forged in stars and has become the third most abundant element. There is water in space. Ice seems to be common in the far reaches of the solar system. It has been found on the moon and stars and a few molecules appear in the cooler spots on the sun.

We have found no worlds yet that have as much liquid water as ours. The water cycle has shaped Earth. Our weather comes largely from the interplay of water and energy. Even the water locked up in the ice of our poles and glaciers shape the land, influence the weather, and affect the movement of heat, water and salt in ocean currents.

Ball tackles all phases of water, including a few exotic forms that only occur in extreme conditions created in laboratories. That water exists as vapor, liquid, and solid within the fairly narrow range of temperatures that are common on Earth make it unique. This is just one of its unusual properties. The structure of the water molecule is described in the book along with the physics that explain its behavior, to the degree that such things are even known.

Our understanding of water as a compound of hydrogen and oxygen is a relatively recent thing. For a long time, water was thought of as an irreducible element. This makes sense on some level. Water is essential to life as we know it. It is irreplaceable. From the perspective of living creatures, and in almost every culture, water is a fundamental material.

In the final chapter, Ball moves away from the hard sciences to culture, economics and policy. Water of the quality needed for drinking, and even the lesser quality needed for other things, is scarce and unevenly distributed on the planet. To take a serious look at water is to be drawn to issues of health and wealth. Growing population and changing climate will put increased demands on the available fresh water, and we need to consider how we are going to manage it. Ball takes a look at some of the hot spots.

The book is intended for a broad audience. I think it is probably more accessible to someone with some education in the sciences, especially chemistry or physics, but someone had a high-school level class in these subjects they should be able to follow along.

In addition, the book is 16 years old, so necessarily out of date in some respects. I suspect that much of the physics, chemistry and biology described is still sound. Similarly, there is unlikely to be discoveries in history that would seriously outdate the book, even in the interesting section on dead ends and “pathology” in water science.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Big Necessity by Rose George

The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman

Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

Canals and Their Architecture by Robert Harris

Elixir by Brian Fagan

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson

The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson

Water by Marq de Villiers

Water by Steven Solomon

When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce

Ball, Philip. Life’s Matrix: A Biography of Water. 1999. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000.

A Professor, a President, and a Meteor by Cathryn J. Prince

A Professor, a President, and a Meteor, a book by Cathryn J. Prince, is a biography of Benjamin Silliman. Silliman helped to establish the United States as a scientific leader.

Silliman was part of the post-Revolutionary generation. His father, Gold Selleck Silliman, was a general in the Continental Army. Benjamin Silliman had hoped to make a name for himself in the law, but was persuaded by a family friend to pursue science, though it was not a career likely to lead to prominence in America.

American science was not well regarded in those days, especially in Europe. A falling star, and Silliman’s diligent and careful study, changed that.

In 1807, a large meteor fell over Weston, Connecticut. Silliman, a very young, new professor of chemistry at Yale, and his colleague James Kingsley, went as quickly as they could to the remote community. The carefully interviewed witnesses, surveyed the location of meteorites, and collected samples. Silliman took samples back to New Haven to analyze them in his lab.

Silliman helped to establish that meteors originated in outer space. Popular theories at the time were that they came for lunar or terrestrial volcanoes or somehow formed in the atmosphere. The notion that something from outer space could fall to Earth was radical.

Silliman other contributions to American science were his work as a popularizer and mentor. He was an able teacher and able to communicate science to a broad audience. His public lectures on science around the country were very popular. He also helped to train a generation of American scientists. At the beginning of his career, he had to go to Europe to study chemistry and geology, at the end of his career and budding scientist could be educated in the U.S.

Silliman’s ability to reach the people of his day was his devotion to his Christian faith. He saw no serious conflict between his religion and his science. He was able to stay out of debates with clergymen that would have brought opposition to his scientific views.

In spite of the title, I found little reason to drag the president into it. Thomas Jefferson was in office at the time of the Weston Fall. Silliman, like other New England Federalists, had little liking for his policies, nor did Jefferson much care for his adversaries in the region. In addition, the president did not highly esteem geology or astronomy, instead preferring biological sciences that he considered to have more practical application. Prince brings up these difference in the book, but they never seem to add up to a serious conflict between Silliman and Jefferson.

Prince, Cathryn J.  A Professor, a President, and a Meteor: The Birth of American Science. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2011.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

A Little History of Science by William Bynum

Copernicus’ Secret by Jack Repcheck

Defining Noah Webster by K. Alan Snyder

The Essential Engineer by Henry Petroski

His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis

The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson

Miss Leavitt's Stars by George Johnson

Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson

Triumvirate by Bruce Chadwick

Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

Halloween Reading and Entertainment

The Boy That Hated Halloween

Chicago’s Most Haunted

Elvira's 13 Sexiest Horror Babes

Most Haunted Places on Earth

Nerdy Halloween Costumes

New York’s Most Haunted Houses

Reportedly Haunted Places in Missouri

Reportedly Haunted Places in the U.S.A.

Scary Book Picks

Spooky Puppets, Slow Pacing In 'Catechism'

Superstitions: Why You Believe

In addition, check out links from previous Halloweens

2008

2009 

2010

2012

The power, the wisdom, and the beneficence of the Creator, are displayed on every flower

Men often live for many years gazing upon the stupendous fabric of the universe, apparently without sentiment of piety; and wander among the charming beauties of the earth, where the power, the wisdom, and the beneficence of the Creator, are displayed on every flower, and every leaf, with as little admiration and gratitude s the beasts that graze on the field.

-Noah Webster

Stealing Plots

I previously wrote about “stealing” characters.  In that essay, I described several characters from popular fiction and how they might be seen as variations on the same character template.  I suggested that a writer can modify and reimagine existing characters to create new ones.  Actually, I think that is probably how most characters are born, even if the authors aren’t consciously aware of it.

Similarly, plots can be “stolen.”  Some have suggested that there are a very limited number of plots, so in a sense all writers are stealing from a small pool.  On the other hand, there is a lot more to a story than just the plot, so it may not matter.  Let me illustrate the idea with some examples.

A Christmas Carol is one of the most popular, and I think one of the best, ghost stories ever written.  Charles Dickens’ novella was first published in 1843.  The story has been adapted to the stage (including opera), many films, radio, television (my wife and I are fond of the 1984 version with George C. Scott as Scrooge), comic books, and numerous pastiches.

The plot is well known.  Ebenezer Scrooge begins as a miser.  On a certain Christmas Eve, he is confronted by the ghost of his former business partner and three spirits who represent Christmases past, present and future.  The visions they show him convince Scrooge that his single-minded pursuit of money has deprived him of life.  He awakes Christmas morning as a new man committed to relating to his fellow man and putting his money to use.

Let’s reverse Scrooge.  Make him an extremely generous person instead of a miser.  In that case, he might be something like George Bailey.  Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, was the generous man at the heart of It’s a Wonderful Life.  His dream is to travel the world.  Instead, he delays his dream again and again to help his neighbors, his brother, and eventually his own wife and children.  It comes to a head when a mistake by his uncle brings imminent ruin to the savings and loan George runs. Faced with ruin, George sees himself as an utter failure.  He contemplates suicide in hopes that his insurance policy will rescue his family from financial ruin.

At this point, he receives a spiritual visit like Ebenezer.  In this case it is a single spirit, an angel named Clarence.  Like the Christmas ghosts, Clarence shows George a vision.  This is also an inversion of Dickens’ tale.  Instead of showing him a history of missed opportunities and blindness to the needs of others, Clarence reveals an alternate world in which George and his generous acts did not exist.  His brother is dead.  His wife is a frightened spinster (it’s hard to believe Donna Reed would have been overlooked by the marriageable men of Bedford Falls even holed up in the library with her glasses on).  The people are mired in poverty because he hadn’t been there to fight for access to credit so they could build homes and businesses.  The town is under the thumb of the miserly landlord Mr. Potter, himself a type of unreformed Scrooge.

Like Scrooge, George is changed by his vision.  He sees that his life is worth something and that his sacrifices bought him a lot of love.  In the end, returned from his walk in the dark alternate universe, that love is displayed by a return of generosity from his many friends that saves him.

These beloved stories don’t have the same plot.  However, one is a variation or alteration of the plot of the other.  This plot archetype doesn’t have to be so serious.

Topper, either the book by Thorne Smith or the movie starring Cary Grant, is an example of this plot played for laughs.  Cosmo Topper is a banker.  He is bored with his job.  He is somewhat alienated from his wife who clings to respectability.  He has money and status, even what might have been considered a good marriage in a time when such relationships were as much about business as love, but he has no fun and it is wearing on him.

The ghosts are a piece of work, too.  George and Marion Kerby are a wealthy couple who die in a car accident.  Instead of shuffling off to the afterlife, they find themselves stuck on earth.  They have never done something substantive, either good or bad, in their entirely frivolous lives.  They decide to fix the situation by helping their old friend Topper.

In this case, all the major characters are a type of Scrooge.  Topper has let his job, money, and status keep him from a life of fun and serious connection.  The Kerbys had so little meaningful connection to other people that they neither helped nor harmed another soul.  Even Topper’s wife Clara has sacrificed intimacy in her marriage to focus on social climbing.

So Topper is visited by spirits like Scrooge and Bailey.  Instead of taking a serious look at life, it is presents a screwball comedy.  The Kerbys drag Topper into all kind of risqué situations he would normally not get into.  Misunderstandings abound and Topper is embarrassed repeatedly.  The ghosts are have good intentions, but they are not very competent.  Topper feigns irritation at the hijinks, but in his heart is having a ball and doesn’t want the haunting to end.  Clara feels humiliated by all the trouble Topper is getting into, but fear of losing him to a wild life reminds her of how much she loves him.

Through a series of screwy events, the characters undergo a Scrooge-like change.  The Toppers loosen up and rekindle their love.  They discover that their intimacy as a couple is more important than jobs, wealth or status, though they don’t have to completely give up those things.  The Kerbys take responsibility for themselves and their actions.  They finally put Topper’s needs ahead of their own and do something substantively good, opening the doors of heaven.

You can probably see that these stories are related by more than similarities in plot.  They have a common theme.  All of these stories are about connecting to others in relationships.  Bailey is a little different from the others in that he starts out blind to all the good that has resulted from his seemingly humble touching of the lives of others.  Scrooge, the Toppers and the Kerbys are isolated for various reasons, mostly of their own making, and need to discover that relating to others is the main thing.

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Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan by Rick Bowers

On February 5, 1946, The Adventures of Superman radio program opened with a new introduction:

Yes, it’s Superman.  Strange visitor from another planet, who came to earth with powers and abilities farbeyond those of mortal men.  Superman, defender of law and order, champion of equal rights, valiant, courageous fighter against the forces of hate and prejudice!

This announced the beginning of the radio Superman’s struggle with post-war social issues, especially a campaign against racial and religious intolerance.  In this adventure, Jimmy Olsen infiltrated the Guardians of America, a fictional stand-in for pro-Nazi groups that were operating in the United States at the time.  This was only the beginning.  Later that year, Adventures would feature a 16-episode story in which Superman took on the Clan of the Fiery Cross, a stand-in for the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

Behind these fictional stories of Superman were real-life adventures.  The KKK was attempting to launch a new national membership drive, playing on the insecurities people felt after World War II.  There were real infiltrators of the KKK and other organized hatemongers who exposed the workings of these organizations in the media.  Rick Bowers tells the story of these men and the producers of the comic book and radio Superman in Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan.

Superman had been dealing with cultural concerns from his beginning.  When Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Jewish high-school students in Cleveland, created Superman in the 1930s, they pitted him against criminal gangs and crooked politicians.  As Nazi Germany began to rise as an aggressive European power, the hero opposed Nazis at home and abroad.  During the war, he protected the home front.   Though it is not the focus, Bowers describes how Superman has changes with the concerns of the times.

The Klan has roots going back to the Reconstruction era after the Civil War.  It started as a jokey order of former Confederate Army officers in Tennessee who imitated the mystery religion-inspired fraternal orders that were popular at colleges, with mysterious rituals and strange names.  It spawned imitators that secretly gathered in Nashville to organize themselves in 1867.  Former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was the first Grand Wizard, who lead the Klan in opposition to Reconstruction, including domestic terrorism against blacks and white proponents of racial equality and Reconstruction policies.  The violence of the Klan members, called Ghouls, eroded the organization’s popularity.

William J. Simmons launched a campaign to revive the Klan, taking it national in 1920.  For Simmons it was largely a moneymaking scheme, though he seemed happy to promote intolerance of blacks, Jews, Catholics, immigrants and anyone else who wasn’t a white, male Protestant.  (I’m a white, male Protestant and I find nothing in Protestantism, or Christianity in general, that justifies the intolerance promoted by the Klan.)  Successors led the Klan to political activism in the 1920s, and it became very powerful, but front-line violence and leadership hypocrisy undermined their position.  The post-war membership campaign, led by Samuel Green who was Grand Dragon of the Georgia Realm, was thwarted by law enforcement and equal rights advocates with help of medial like Adventures.

The library helpfully labeled Bowers’ book with a sticker that reads, “TEEN.”  I suppose it is a young adult book, though I think it is within the grasp of many middle school students.  It is an unusual introduction to the history of bigotry in American and the movements that promoted equality, but the tie to a popular superhero might make the subject more appealing to kids in school.  It made me pick up the book, and I’m far passed my school days.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Maus by Art Spiegelman

Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu

Bowers, Rick.  Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan.  Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2012.

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New & Interesting Stuff on Ada Lovelace's Birthday 2012

It’s Ada Lovelace’s 197^th Birthday

-Ada Lovelace (Computer History Museum)

-Ada Lovelace (1915-1852)

-Ada Lovelace: 'The Enchantress of Numbers'

-Ada Lovelace, World's First Computer Programmer, Celebrated With Google Doodle

-Five Historic Female Mathematicians You Should Know

-Google Celebrates Ada Lovelace

-Google Pays Tribute to Ada Lovelace

Also Today in History: First Traffic Light Installed

$1 of Highway Spending Creates $2 of Economic Activity

25 Audio and Video Reviews on Keenan’s Book Reviews

Alternative Fuels and Energy Resources Articles and Links (Updated)

American Reinvestment and Recovery Act News

Any business run by people who love will have black figures in its ledgers

Bill Watch - 112th Congress (Updated)

Conspiracy Theory Notes

Dickhead Roboticists

EPA Blog Features Missouri

Extreme Weather Hard on Infrastructure

Fetus Yawning Reveals Brain Activity

First Peter

God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts

Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott

If two earth concerning anything, it will be done for them in heaven

It's All Connected

Micah to Step Down from T&I Chair

New & Interesting Stuff Nov. 20, 2012

Recovery Act Review

Second Peter

Skywalk Memorial Close to Fundraising Goal, Construction of New Design Anticipated

They conquer who believe they can

We are God's workmanship

What God has for us to do is who we are

Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will have

Why including women matters for the future of technology and society

if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them in heaven

Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.

-Matthew 18:19

Conspiracy Theory Notes

Another Mona Lisa?

Author claims CIA assasinated Kennedy mistress

Author links murdered mistress to CIA

Bringing Guantanamo Bay Detainees into the U.S.

Direction of Time Fuzzy for Subatomic Particles

Earth’s Hum Heard Everywhere

Even Scientists Unwittingly See Purpose in Nature

Facebook Pushes Androids

Father of Mayan Pyramids Found

Is Someone Stealing Your Refund?

Jesus Wife Papyrus a Fake (according to the Vatican, which is probably right)

Jurassic Turtle Graveyard Found in China

Midieval Female Skeleton may be Church Founder

Money: Plastic or Metal?

More on conspiracy theories

Nazi-acquired Buddha statue came from space

Porn Shuts Down Brain

”Science Tales” Comics Battles Hoaxes and Pseudoscience with Knowledge

Superstitions: Why You Believe

Will Artificial Intelligence be the End of Us?

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

L’Engle, Madeleine.  A Wrinkle in Time.  1962.  New York: Laurel-Leaf, 1976.

Though I review all the nonfiction books I read, I write about only a little about fiction.  Sometimes a fiction book hits so many areas of interest to me that I want to write about it.  A Wrinkle in Time is one.  It’s a classic, award-winning novel.  It’s a children’s or young adult book, and one is never too old for a good kid’s book.  It’s science fiction.  It’s informed by author Madeleine L’Engle’s Christian faith.

Margaret (Meg) Murphy is an awkward girl who doesn’t fit in.  Her family is unusual, too.  Her father is missing, though Meg stubbornly clings to hope that he will come home.  Her mother is a scientists, caring but somewhat unconventional.  Two of her brothers, twins, are pretty normal, if a little rough, and the third, the youngest, is a genius and most people find him unpleasantly odd.

Meg, her genius baby brother Charles Wallace and Calvin O’Keefe (an older, popular boy who keeps his oddness better wrapped) are pulled into an adventure in space by three creatures, seeming witches, aliens and more.  On another planet, they rescue Meg’s father and almost succumb to the powerful mind that rules the planet.  It is the things Meg dislikes most about herself that allows her to prevail.

A Wrinkle in Time is an adventure.  It is also a parable.  Part of the message is Christian.  The universe is God’s creation for His glory, and good creatures acknowledge and worship Him.  Yet there is evil, and Earth is infected with it.  Love overcomes evil.

It is tempting to see a political message.  On the world Meg visits, Camazotz, a single being rules all, taking responsibility for every decision, instilling uniformity so that everybody has the same things.  It is not hard to see this as a parallel to a communist state, where the government controls and distributes all resources.  It sounds like the nanny state as well, where people are relieved of the responsibilities of caring for themselves and making their own decisions.

It is this last point that I think is important to L’Engle whether or not is has political implications.  We are made to be individuals, unique and special, and we cannot be separated from responsibility for ourselves and our decisions and still have real joy, even if we have everything we seem to need.  When the “aunts” give gifts to the adventurers to prepare them for their trial, they give Meg her faults.  As Christians, we believe that everyone is uniquely made by God.  Our faults, shortcomings, imperfections make us needy of God’s grace, and His grace abounds in us to His glory.

In addition, IT, the mind-lord of Camazotz, is a finite being with finite imagination, thus the uniformity of the planet IT rules.  God is infinite, and His creation has enormous variety, abundance, scope and beauty beyond your imagination.  We can love, serve, and worship one God, we can all be imitators of Christ, and still each be a unique individual.

Before closing, I’d like to mention another Christian sci-fi classic, The Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis.  There are some parallels between the works.  For instance, both L’Engle and Lewis, in Out of the Silent Planet, depict Earth as darkened and separated from communion with the larger universe because of the influence of human sin and the dominion of Satan.  IT, a big brain, reminds me of the Head from Lewis’ That Hideous Strength.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis

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Scholastic’s A+ Guide to Book Reports by Louise Colligan

Colligan, Louise. Scholastic’s A+ Guide to Book Reports. New York: Scholastic, 1982.

I found a copy of Scholastic’s A+ Guide to Book Reports, authored by Louise Colligan, at a library book sale. It is in near mint condition. There is no crease in the spine. The pages are yellowed after 30 years, but otherwise spotless. The corners of the unfaded cover are slightly foxed, but I think that came from my handling. I guess I’m the first person who read this copy of the book. Presumably, someone who may have been in high school about the same time I was deprived himself of the good advice in this book.

This book is aimed at teenagers, especially high school students, who are assigned to write book reports. I’ve been out of high school a while, but I assume that still happens. Colligan’s advice still applies to that task, and some of it is applicable to other writing.

Part of the system described in the book involves good study skills and organizing work. It is simplistic, narrowly focused and prescriptive, but that is probably appropriate for a teen. I did not have such good habits in high school, and the demands of college and work pushed me into taking an organized approach to my work, which is second nature now. I recommend learning this skill as early a possible.

The rest of the system focuses on the book report, though still in an organized manner. Colligan provides ideas on how to select and appropriate book, approaches to reading with the task of writing a report in mind, and tips for writing different types of book reports. She also lists a number of creative alternatives to essay-style reports.

The understanding of the book is that this activity takes place in a school. Students are encouraged to get appropriate input from the teacher and to focus on the assignment, not going off on tangents.

One of the things that interested me was the list of recommended books. Because of its age, it doesn’t include anything published in the last 30 years. Classics, though, don’t go out of style. I was assigned a few in high school, such as The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, which I recommend. Like many boys, I enjoyed science fiction and fantasy and on my own read Dune by Frank Herbert and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien (the one fantasy trilogy that rules them all).

Another interesting thing about the book is that there is no mention of the Internet. It didn’t exist. I don’t know how the Internet has affected the high school book report. I suspect that it has had little effect. Colligan’s sound little manual is probably as useful today as it was when I was a freshman, and I have a very nice copy available for a reasonable sum.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster
How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard
You Can Write for Magazines by Greg Daugherty
Your Intelligence Makeover by Edward F. Droge, Jr.

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Galatians

Galatians. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

The church at Galatia was another founded among the Gentiles by Paul. The apostle kept up with the churches, revisiting and corresponding with them, and sent to them letters, like the one we call Galatians, to encourage and correct his fellow believers.

As with his other letters, Paul encouraged the church to stay true to the Gospel as they were taught by faithful messengers, firstly himself. There were people and sects who were trying to reshape Christianity in their own fashion. The same is true today. Paul defended the received faith.

The particular group active in Galatia are called Judaizers. They sought to institute Mosaic Law in the church, especially amongst the new Gentile believers. This included all manner of laws, ceremonies and traditions. The primary practice, symbolic of them all, was circumcision.

To strengthen their case, the Judaizers attempted to undermine Paul. Paul devoted part of his letter to defending his authority and teachings. The main point is this: Paul taught the same Gospel that the other apostles taught and he taught with the approval of the other apostles, though he did not necessarily need it. In addition, the point on circumcision in particular was long settled among the apostles.



As far as I know, advocates of circumcision for religious purpose aren’t active in or around the church today. There are major religions that have borrowed superficially from Christianity to build religions of laws that depart from the Gospel of grace. The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Latter Day Saints come to mind, though they both depart from orthodox Christianity on almost every major point. Even working within the church are those who teach some kind of law or ethic that binds men with hardly a meaningful mention of the liberating grace of God.

Paul sets up this contrast in his letter: law or grace. It depends on us or it depends on God. God’s law is perfect, as is His justice. Imperfect and sinful Christians can’t keep even a portion of the law and can’t compare to the spotless character of God. A person who looks to the law will only find himself condemned by it. The purpose of the law is to push us to the grace and mercy of God, which is revealed in full in Jesus Christ.

The hymn “Jesus Paid it All” sums up the idea of grace. Jesus fulfilled the law, so in Him, the faithful are no longer condemned by the law, but they are made righteous in God’s sight. In Jesus, we are remade as children of God and given God’s Spirit. As children and heirs of God’s, we are not bound, constrained, and coerced by laws. Instead, we are free to live a new life, quickened by a new Spirit, and having faith in the unshakable work of God and not our flimsy works under the law.

Though the Judaizers attempted to undermine Paul’s teaching as aberrant, he shows himself to be both true to the Gospel and a master of scripture. His arguments are substantially founded on exposition of the Old Testament.

Paul presents the question to the church. If we can trust God, having faith in Christ that He has worked out everything to save us from the destruction of sin and gave us a new life of liberty, why on Earth would we trust ourselves to somehow earn God’s approval by submitting ourselves to laws we don’t keep except though self-delusion? If we truly believe the Gospel, how could anything else turn our heads?

Paul also wrote
First Corinthians
Romans
Second Corinthians

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Acts
Genesis
The Gospels
The Pentateuch

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